Interviews

MANUEL PABLO: “WE ARE MISSING CONFIDENCE”

06 Oct 2010Captain Manuel Pablo gave an interview to newspaper La Opinión A Coruña; the Canarian emphasized the fact that Deportivo is missing confidence after the poor results on the season; he was trying to be calm and asked for the fans’ support.

Q: In such difficult moments, what are the conclusions?A: First, we're doing things wrong. That the errors are expensive. We are missing confidence. All this makes the slope more difficult than it is. And against big teams the differences are bigger. But the hours are passing and we realize that a lot still ahead, there is time to correct those mistakes and restore the confidence.

Q: You spoke twice of lack of confidence, and on Sunday Lotina said it too. Is this a cause of the results?A: It is a matter of the results. Things that in the past were fine are now wrong. The errors seem bigger and it costs us to improve.

Q: What is the cure for this lack of confidence?A: The work helps, but no matter how hard you work, without results there’s no trust. And with those mistakes, you lose.

Q: We heard Lotina saying that the team works well in the trainings, but that later in the games the players don’t show the good work of the week. It seems it is not enough to train well.A: No, of course not. We also need to compete, giving importance to things. We can’t afford some mistakes that cost us goals. If before we paid 95 percent of attention during a game, now we need 120%.

Q: In the first year of Lotina the team fell to relegation in the middle of the season. Is this a similar crisis?A: Then it was more difficult. We were playing well and finished the first round with very few points. We had less room for error than now. If the same thing would be repeated at the same height of the season, then we would be more alarmed.

Q: What’s the main error now?A: Before we played better and we were creating scoring opportunities. The defense has changed little, although they were also arriving to our area and scoring the goals. We are failing now in attack.

Q: Could it be that the squad has changed too much from last year?A: I don’t know. The major part of the teams aren’t playing well, they are well organized and prevent you from playing good football, each time is more difficult to play better.

Q: Is Depor’s current squad superior to other years?A: I don’t think so. It’s now more balanced than last year; we have more alternatives for the injuries. What is clear is that we don’t have a superclass player as we had on the previous year [Filipe Luis].

Q: Are you missing heavyweights? Is there a lack of authority at the squad? Because it is said that Deportivo is a “too soft team”.A: No. It was the same four years ago. Similar criticism as the rival came to our area and scored the goals. Man, now it’s true that we don’t know how to compete, we have to learn it.

Q: That if you lack punch, that if the team is too young, that the injuries are affecting ... What has more influence?A: I don’t like doing these evaluations. The lack of punch is clear; we don’t damage the opponents and they become stronger. But I think that, right now, the zone we need to protect more is the back, because it’s what will give us success. We're now like four years ago, because the rival arrives to our zone and scores, we have a sense of constant danger. Keeping a clean sheet will give us more confidence.

Q: Is the team suffering at the changing room?A: Now we're pretty bad. The discomfort is fading with the pass of the hours and then we’re trying to have hope. In the bad and good moments this locker room has been united.

Q: What’s the message to the fans?A: We need them now as much as four years ago, and now the situation is not as dramatic. We need your support badly throughout the ninety minutes. We would encouraged in a moment of total mistrust.

Q: In times of crisis is it convenient to measure the words?A: Yes, above all, be reasonable in what you say, though the interpretation could be different.